Native American artifacts presentation at Great Swamp Conservancy in Canastota

CANASTOTA -- On Saturday, Nov. 10, the Great Swamp Conservancy hosted a presentation on the local history of Indian artifacts by GSC founder and president Mike Patane.

Patane showed attendees some of his artifact collection featuring arrowheads, flint, pieces of pottery, chert rock, and primitive drills. Crowd favorites included the trading beads brought over by European settlers, Indian pipe stems and bowls, and a bead with a dove carved in one side and a fish on the other.

Other artifacts were a rock used on a club and rock tools. One interesting artifact was a snow snake, which was carved out of wood to be long and slender, curved up on one end and notched on the other. A trough was created in the snow, and teams would compete at throwing the snow snake through the trough at fast speeds; the team with the cumulatively longest distance would be the winner. Patane was very proud to show his Oneida elm bark basket. The audience expressed amazement at the craftsmanship that went into that basket, as well as another basket which had been woven. Some of the displayed artifacts dated back 3,000-4,000 years.

This presentation was a preview of what will be on display in the Community Outreach Center/Natural History Museum at the Great Swamp Conservancy within the next two to three years. Hundreds more artifacts are waiting to be properly displayed to show off their history and tell their stories. The GSC recently secured funding from the Gorman Foundation to winterize of the Community Outreach Center/Natural History Museum, and is actively seeking further funding to complete the project.